Sharma: Taking stock

New Delhi, Aug. 9: The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is losing Rs 19 crore a day in sales as its natural gas processing facility at Hazira remained closed for the second consecutive day because of Gujarat floods.

Senior company officials said it was “a deferred” and not a permanent loss as the gas production could be stepped up to cover the current loss after the plant started functioning again.

The floods have disrupted close to half of the country’s natural gas production threatening power supplies in the north and CNG supplies to automobiles in Delhi.

ONGC south Bassein and B-55 fields in Mumbai offshore and the joint venture operated Panna-Mukta and Tapti fields have also been shut as their output is fed to the Hazira facility.

The ONGC-Reliance and British Gas owned Panna-Mukta fields were forced to cut oil production by 20,000 barrels per day.

Over 40 million standard cubic meters per day of gas from these fields is supplied to power and fertiliser plants and CNG as an auto fuel in the capital.

“The situation continues to remain grim. We don’t see operations resuming in the next couple of days,” a company official said. The Hazira complex continues to remain under 4-5 feet water.

ONGC chairman R.S. Sharma said gas supplies of 40,000 mmscmd from the Hazira plant have been suspended. India’s current gas availability is around 91 mmscmd. He said efforts are on at a war footing to restore operations at the Hazira plant.

Non-availability of gas has partially affected GAIL’s Hazira-Bijaipur-Jagdishpur (HBJ) pipeline. The company is rationing the 18 mmscmd gas available from imported LNG.

Gail has been asked to ration supplies with transport, power and fertiliser units getting top priority.

Floods hit the Hazira complex on the midnight of August 7 calling for an emergency shutdown. The catchment area of Tapi river had been experiencing heavy rains continuously for the past few days, resulting in an increase of water level at Ukai Dam to 340 feet.

Due to high water level, around 8 lakh cusecs water from the Ukai Dam was released on August 7.